Saturday, June 30, 2007

Trevor and Devin love their new school in our new town. But, on Trevor's second day there, that truth wasn't quite as clear as it is now.

We had let Trevor watch TV before school. It was our custom in the past, and once we got a TV hooked up, we didn't think to change it.

So, Trevor watched TV, and when it was time to leave, he threw a tantrum. So, we made a rule. No TV before school. It will be a rule that has remained in full force and effect for nearly two weeks now. I think it has stuck. I wavered on Thursday, though. When Trevor asked if he could watch TV, I really, really wanted to say YES. I wanted coffee and I wanted to fix their lunches, and I wanted to let my eyes glaze over as I thought of, you know, nothing at all. Instead, I told him to see what Dad thought.

He went to check with Dad who was still in bed.

He came back to the living room and said, "Dad said it was OK." I wasn't sure I believed him, so I started towards the bedroom. Trevor continued, "but, don't check!"

I said to Trevor that lying was not good. He told me that Dad really told him he could watch TV, but that I shouldn't check.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

We are enjoying our new home. It's very pretty here, and there are lots of parks left to explore (we've really only been to 3 now). We went to a lovely one near our house tonight, splashed in the water, and played on the swings and spaceship (slide).

Afterwards, we went for ice cream at the university. It was a little chilly. Maybe even too chilly for ice cream. The boys all got cones, and when things started to melt down, I got bowls in an attempt to salvage the fun. But, it was just too cold, and I'm not sure everyone had a great time.

Still, Devin made time for a memory.

He said, "I want to sit by Dad." Devin is pretty notorious for touching Dad while he is eating and Dad is pretty notorious for not liking that very much. So, Dad and I both suggested it wasn't a very good idea. But, then he said, "I want to sit by my friend, Dad" and we really couldn't refuse him after that...

Trevor asked for a lesson on how to wash dishes and then washed all the dishes in the sink. It may have just been water play for him, but he definitely moved dishes from the soapy water to the drainer side of the sink.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I smiled at Trevor this morning, and he told me that he really liked it when I smiled at him. Then he reminisced about himself at 3 years old and remarked what good memories he had from the time when he was 3. He misses his 3 year old self a little. Then we took them to school where drop off was completely and totally painless. This might be a honeymoon phase and may change, but for the moment, I choose to believe it will be this easy forever.

When I picked the boys, Devin was fast asleep and stayed asleep for another 2 hours. Trevor told me that he loved the lunch I had packed for them, calling it "fantastic." Wow. No one has ever called my food preparation skills "fantastic." That was a wonderful compliment. He also told me that he likes his new teachers. They are new and they are all nicer than his old teachers. When we first started talking about this school before we moved, I told him he would have nice, new teachers. He asked, "Will they all be as nice as Ms. Leslie?" This was kinda funny to me because Ms. Leslie, at his old school, was just about the nicest kindergarten teacher I had ever met. She controlled kids with her absolute niceness. So, that he wanted teachers as nice as her was sweet. I think he got them, too.

Then, we had snacks. Do you know that peanut butter on graham crackers tastes just like Nutter Butter cookies? No kidding. They're really tasty. It's such a huge discovery for me that I want to share with the world. Did everyone already know just how good PB and GC are?? Try the PB and GC soon. Oh, and melon balls. Apparently, both watermelon and cantaloupe taste better when shaped like a ball. Try those. Helps make lunch "fantastic." I have a little tiny ice-cream like scoop that I think is for making cookies. But, maybe it's a melon baller, because it performs that task quite nicely. Well worth the expense if you don't have one already. It's way easier than cutting up a a melon into bite sized chunks and less messy for toddlers, big boys and their moms to eat, too. Melon Balls. Not just for fancy parties...

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

It's been a long time, but I've been busy. Life is starting to slow down, finally, and that is nice.

I took the boys to the park today. It's a school park, and not one of the best school parks, either. But, they liked it. Trevor spent most of his time trying to keep away from bumble bees and Devin spent most of his picking up pine cones (pronounced pine-uh cones), bringing them to me, and saying, "that's a kinda good one, Mom."

They seem to like their new school. It's a Montessori School, and they learn "lessons" there. It's only been two days, so I don't know how much they've learned. Trevor told me today that he had a lesson about ice cream. He really liked the lesson a lot. I asked what he learned in his lesson. "Nothing. We just ate ice cream." That he liked a lot.

Here's a picture of my grandma that mom posted on Flickr. Pretty...

Here's Jena and Jacy in a cute little photo story (more of Mom's pics from Flickr.)

Monday, June 04, 2007

Since I was intrigued, I asked him, "Who will YOU take care of when you grow up?"

I thought he would say that he would take care of me, his old mom, because just a few minutes earlier after expressing his frustration with my taking a shortcut home, he told me that when he grew up, he would never take me on shortcuts. Since his future self was driving around my future self, I assumed it was to take me to my weekly dialysis appointments, or something along those lines. So, it's no wonder that I assumed it was me that he would be taking care of.

But that would be an incorrect assumption.

He said, "Well, I will be the first dad, and Devin will be the second dad."

"OH," I said. "Does that mean that you will take care of your wife and your children?"

When I arrived to pick up Trevor from school, I realized that assuming he didn't need an extra change of clothes was yet another bad assumption. Poor kid is wearing peach colored Winnie the Pooh pants that won't stay up and a cute little shirt that belongs to someone else.

I asked him what happened, and he mumbled something about someone splashing him. His teacher was busy, so I frowned, and let it go.

Later, I mentioned to Daddy that Trevor was wearing girl's pants.

Daddy asked Trevor what happened.

Trevor said, "I think that someone must have splashed me. When I woke up from my nap, I was all wet. It was really strange."

Daddy asked, "what color was it?"

Trevor said, "well, it was blue when it was wet, but when it dried, it was black."

Well, I wasn't sure this was true or not. I picked up the bag of clothes, but didn't bother opening them. Honestly, there's never anything nice in these "goody bags."

But, when Trevor started mentioning these colors, I got curious. I retrieved the bag and opened it. Hmmmm, I thought to myself. Nothing blue here. Nothing black, either. Let me smell. Ah, well, maybe it was "strange" when Trevor woke up all wet from his nap, but it wasn't the mystery he thought it was. Not at all...